Cloud computing
A concept that's been around for longer than I'd like to admit my ignorance to it, claims that the processing power should live in the cloud, another word for the internets, as a result of which people share the processing power allowing for a bigger and meaner processor to churn the binary than just little piddly things we call desktop processors.
One of the oldest and well known example of cloud computing application is, or should I say was before the re-branding ... Hotmail. The email voo-doers ran a server that managed all your e-mail, plus spam and those days had some real spam, with you accessing it all through a web browser.
What people take for granted is the fact that in order to receive emails you need a dedicated machine, listening for that ring tone and picking up all your messages while you are out (your computer being switched off), a lot like an answering machine. This function is performed by an email server (no relation to me) brought to existence for the sole purpose of listening for your emails. Technically speaking there is no requirement for google, yahoo or microsoft to provide free email management, but they do because their business model makes money through adverts.
Pros
If you have not yet deduced the pros let me give you some hints:
a) you will never have to upgrade your computer again, U'll just need a machine with a fast net connection and a browser, all applications will be processed remotely on a server with you interfacing with the results through the browser.
b) you will be able to access your computer from anywhere ... so every computerhas a 'memory' of your computer.
c) never have to worry about backups or data loss as many of these server farms are based in a range of locations.
Cons
The most obvious one I hear you scream is ... Security ... And I totally understand. But consider this, how safe is your data on your machine and are you, average Joe/Jane, better at fighting off Trojans than a team of geeks who's idea of Friday night is some good only OOP (object oriented programming).
The other thing to consider before you fully write the cloud off is that most of your sensitive data already lives online in a form of an email of sorts.
The only true limitation at the moment is the reliability of net access ... You do not want to be caught in the headlights with your pants down and without a connection. That said, with multiple mediums allowing online access these days (mobiles, hotspots, etc) its only a matter of time before we put our faith into the net ... like we did for electricity back in the day when we made a leap of faith from a largely mechanical to electiral based world.
The winds of change aren't just blowing but hurling things all over the place and then some. People are slowly getting used to, and in many cases addicted to, life of the net.
Forces at work
There are two forces of at work here Push, pushing us up to the cloud from our desktop, and Pull, lifting us uo into the cloud. Google(pull), Adobe (pull) and Microsoft (push) are just a few of the names behind these forces.
> Google is pulling us up in the cloud with offers of its services like google mail, docs, picasa ...
> Adobe AIR; is a very clever initiative, allowing developers to create 
desktop applications that brings the online experience to you desktop, leveraging some of the local machine's processing power to enhance the web experience ... A step towards the cloud.
> Microsoft Silverlight (push); this a move by Microsoft to push information from the desktop to the cloud, similar in nature to AIR. Another initiative by Microsoft is its Live MESH project that let you synchronize several machines to each other so for instance allowing your home machine to replicate the assets on your office machine, this is a oversimplified view of MESH.
There are many other pulling forces about with the likes of getdropbox and amazon offering online storage as ways of backup, enticing you to get used to putting you data online.
If you think about it, these titans, namely google, microsoft .. Are laying down the ground work to ensure their place on the network for the future .. probably when the machines rule the world. This is especially essential for Microsoft because the direction things are heading, operating systems are soon to be a thing of the past, time when tyrants ruled the world, which just happen to be their core product.
Our involvement with the development of the cloud is reminiscent of a forg in a boiling pot. If you put a frog in a pot of boiling water it'll jump out but if you put the frog in the water before firing up the stove it will merrily sit there in its own stew as it slowly gets cooked.
The water is about to reach boiling point, are you ready.
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